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Brewfist Italian Ales

X-Ray is an American porter–style beer brewed by Brewfist in Codogno, Italy. Brewfist wanted to make porter that would go deep into your bones. It’s a big fat porter with a lusty 8.5% ABV, a rich andcomplex beer that is brewed with traditional English malts such as pale, crystal, chocolate, brown, and Monaco and topped off with Magnum hops. It pours an opaque dark-brown color and is well-balancedwith a small amount of sugar and a touch of bitter hops. Chocolate absolutely dominates.

It’s not a common notion that a coffee stout could or should be deliberately hoppy (hoppy, not bitter; there’s a difference). But this seems to be the idea behind Tröegs Java Head, a coffee stout with a prominent hop character. It has an opaque black to dark-brown body and forms a dark tan frothy head that laces and retains very well. There is a prominent stout aroma of roasted barley and subtle chocolate and coffee notes but also a surprising hop presence of citrus and pine.

Strong citrusy bitterness is the first thing to hit the palate, making this brew very reminiscent of a classic American IPA. Through the middle there is a smooth, silky, slightly sweet stout taste of roasted barley and a quick kick of coffee flavor. As it finishes, there’s a dank resiny character that brings the palate back full circle to the original hoppy character, but this time it’s piney instead of citrusy. The aftertaste is surprisingly clean even though this beer has both big-time hops (60 IBU) and coffee in it. What was most surprising was that it had been bottled nine months earlier yet the hops had not faded at all. In fact, the coffee and stronger stout qualities may have succumbed a bit to age. There was a layer of gooon the bottom of the bottle, so perhaps this beer is bottle-conditioned this could partially explain why it kept so well for so long.

This brew has pretty much the perfect mouth-feel and drinking experience for a beer of this nature. Not thick and viscous and far from watery, Tröegs Java Head has a medium body and a perfect carbonation level. It’s not quite velvety but closer to silky, and it goes down extremely smooth. At 7.5% ABV it’s not nearly as heavy as that number would indicate. Most drinkers could put away two 12-ounce bottles or a single 22-ounce bomber by themselves without any trouble.

Anchor Brewing Company

There’s a strong case to be made that Anchor Brewing Company kicked off the era of microbreweries (or as they’re called these days, craft breweries) in the United States. Originally founded during the Gold Rush era by George Breckle, the brewery managed to survive earthquakes, fires, and even Prohibition. When Anchor was on the brink of closure in 1965, it was purchased by Fritz Maytag. Maytag turned the failing brewery around and went on to introduce American drinkers to myriad styles that had never been brewed in the United States. One of those styles was porter. Although the styles of stout and porterare popular these days, at one time porter very nearly went extinct. By the 1970s, no English breweries were brewing porter; they all had ceded that space to the more popular style of stout. In stepped Anchor, which brewed the first post-Prohibition porter in the United States in 1972. (It should be noted that by 1979, a handful of English brewers had started experimenting with the style again.)

Fermented with Anchor’s top-fermenting yeast and brewed with a mélange of roasted malts, Anchor Porter falls right in the sweet spot between the sweet malts of a brown ale and the dark roastiness of a stout. The flavor is largely toffee sweetness, with bitter coffee and caramel maltiness rounding out either side. Even with these rich notes, Anchor Porter is light in body and easy to drink at 5.6% ABV. More than four decades after its debut, it remains the quintessential American porter.

Mayflower Brewing Company is a craft-beer microbrewery located in historic Plymouth, Massachusetts. Founded in 2007 by a tenth great grandson of John Alden, the beer barrel cooper on board the Mayflower, they are dedicated to celebrating the history and legacy of the Pilgrims by creating unique, high quality ales for the New England market. One hundred years after the Mayflower landed atPlymouth, a new beer style, the porter, emerged in England and traveled to the colonies where itwas heartily accepted. Their porter is brewed using yeast the brewery cultivates itself, malts such as 2-row pale, caramel Munich, chocolate, peated, and brown. It is hopped with Pilgrim and Glacier hops. At 5.2% ABV, it is rich and drinkable. Complex and well-balanced, it features a nose bursting with roasted coffee beans and bittersweet chocolate with a hint of smokiness. Very solid.

Tommy knocker Brewery can be found in Idaho Springs, Colorado. Their Cocoa Porter is a popular seasonal beer; a smooth, classic dark-brown ale with milk chocolate and coffee flavors as well a gorgeous aromas of roasted malt. A light addition of domestic Perle and Willimette hops balances thecomplexity of this beer. The addition of pure cocoa powder and Colorado honey elevates it from good, to classic. At 5.7% ABV this beer is a very drinkable session beer that is highly acclaimed and worth seeking out.

Sankt Gallen Brewing is made in Atsugi, Kanagawa, Japan. The brewery has an international following for its chocolate beer, which is so popular that in January 2013 Sankt Gallen introduced a new combo set of a 330-milliliter bottle of its Imperial Chocolate Stout with an edible glass made entirely of chocolate. The chocolate cup is safe and specially designed to melt and dissolve in the mouth, not in the hand. According to Sankt Gallen, the beer style was born in London in the early eighteenth ce ntury and almost vanished in the subsequent one hundred years. With the boom of American beer in the 1990s, there was a stunning revival. Sankt Gallen’s Imperial Chocolate Stout is made using pale ale malt, Myunikku, Crystal 20° L, 60° L, and chocolate malts along with hops such as Chinook and Willamette. The beer pours dark brown in color and has a nose of slightly burnt malt and big chocolate. There’s some spiciness from the hops. At 5.5% ABV, the alcohol seems very light, and the beer is very drinkable.

Funky Buddha Brewery's comes from unexpected beginnings. In 2007, Ryan Sentz purchased R & R Tea Bar in an unassuming stretch of strip malls on Federal Highway in Boca Raton, Florida. What began as a hookah and tea bar, expanded into a lounge serving some of the best craft beers around. He soon outgrew the space and in September 2010, Sentz and his crew raised a glass and toasted the all-new and much bigger Funky Buddha Lounge & Brewery, located farther up Federal Highway.

Last Snow is a beer that Funky Buddha says is near and dear to their hearts. It is a 6.3-%-ABV porter brewed with white chocolate and coconut. With flavors of coconut, coffee, and white chocolate, Last Snow tastes is the incarnation of indulgence in a glass. What an amazing taste treat, with great balance and complexity. It pours a hazy brown and has a beige head, chocolate nose with coffee, cocoa, toffee, and of course coconut across the palate. Nice bitterness keeps the beer honest on the finish. A highly acclaimed beer, and world-class quality. Impressive!!!

Based in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, Foolproof Brewing is the brainchild of Nick Garrison, president and founder, and brewmaster Damase Olsson. Both started out as homebrewers. Demase is a well-traveled, experienced brewer, and the company is serious about good beer.

Raincloud Robust Porter is the perfect "stay at home" brew, according to the team. Dark, smooth, and rich, this big flavorful porter is brewed with chocolate and crystal malts and subtle blend of European hops. It's a beautiful, easy-drinking beer.

Scott Vaccaro was a student at Villanova when he decided to become a brewer. His parents objected when he opted to quit college and open a brewery. Luckily, Scott was as hardheaded about opening a brewery as he is about quality and innovation. Captain Lawrence Brewing Company is one of the best in the valley. The top four executives are all named Vaccaro, but what matters is the beer, from classic bottled beers to extravagant, cutting-edge brews that wine experts collect.

This beer is brewed with a huge amount of malt to give it a big roasty and smoky flavor. They say it's as big and deep as a cold winter's night, and the 15% ABV says they probably aren't far from wrong. Frost Monster is brewed with two-row black malt, roasted barley, oats, crystal malt, and chocolate malt. That's a lot of malt, and they use Columbus hops as well.

The beer pours with a big latte-colored head but without an extreme amount of lacing, which is surprising given the body. There's no question what the backbone of this big, brawny beer is: malt. It's big and roasty, and chocolate and dark stewed fruits such as dark cherry (like in a Bavarian Black Forrest Cake), come across on the nose. But don't be fooled; this is all about the malt despite the high alcohol content, it is easy to drink. It's not the heaviest Imperial you've ever had, but there's plenty to taste and a nice long-lingering finish.

The beer would be incredible poured not just into a pint glass but into a snifter, because there are lots of good smells. it would go beautifully next to a cheese plate, just as it might stand up to a chocolate brownie sundae. This is a very impressive Imperial-style beer.

Backlash is a funky little brewery. Founded in July 2011, they contract brew at Paper City Brewery in Holyoke. But, day-to-day, you'll find them at their headquarters in Boston. You gotta love their viewpoint: "We brew beer the way it was intended to be brewed- flavorful, gimmick free, and not produced in ridiculous quantities. We know you're not impressed by spiral necked bottles or labels that change colors when they're so cold you can no longer taste their contents. You have hands (probably). You're familiar with how temperature works (...right?)" How can you not love these guts?

Death is the fourth and final installment in their Apocalypse Series. This Russian Imperial stout pours black as night with a big (count 'em, almost four fingers) rich khaki head. The nose is chocolate, coffee, and roasted barley with a nice hint of bitterness at the end. This is not a small beer, weighing in with a hefty 9.5% ABV, but it goes down pretty easy. A very good example of this style.